The American Mod

[keldath]

hehe true true.

although i thoguht about change some elemnts in th emod :
- create a solid tech tree from scratch
- break the north and south into a few parts 0texas, plains, california, and more,
and put them all in alliance state and in war with the south.
- use some indian civs to bug everyone
-use was and piece scripts from the_j mod python mod parts
-add some unit structure
- add more buildings
- some more concept ideas that i have,
- clean up the files from unused data - techs, arts, units, civs...

this is tons of work, but i dunno, i have always wanted to work on a civil war mod!

i think next week ill start to do some cleaning.

 

[Drakarska]

Hmnn. I might be able to help you with some scenarios's as I enjoy history as well. I just need to get my Toshiba up and running so I don't have to start over with the tools. Though, I suppose they would probably do better on my new system

-tech tree; most of it is readily available in current mods. Maybe fine tune it to the specific era's with American specific techs for flavor. Time consuming, yes. I may be able to help with some of it, depending on my work schedule.

- Breaking; what your describing sounds like regions, which would be appropriate. Also, for a civil war scenario, this would make thing easier for custom map purposes.

- Indian civ's; You could have a field day here, as there are a lot of tribes to have fun with. Additionally, a custom scenario "Old West" springs to mind.

- The rest is just up to you on how far in depth you want to go. This mod has the base for a great potential, so it may have a chance to get input from the entire mod community. Your call on it's direction I suppose if RN wants to pass it on to you.

 

[keldath]

oh man...

i just saw the movie glory, fro, 1989.

needless to say, it inspired me.

since 3 of my mods are in the air, and waiting for feedback, and enhancements,

it is decided - "American History" mod is thr new project.

tomorrow ill begin working on it.

i always start a mod form civs and tech tree.
so tomorrow ill set a blank files with the nations we want in for starter, no units or ubs yet, then ill build up the tech tree - i dont wanna use the vanilla since i wanna expand that time period of the tech.
im less familiar with the subtle details about those times, but i have quiet extensive knowledge.

your help is more then welcomed.
and scenario build can be great.
any help you can offer is great if you can do xml, thats great, if you better at maps -some north america maps woul dbe nice -at small to huge sizes.


im building the mod ont op of kmod by the way.



and the old west - well that just wonderful - its an era i havnt seen any mod or scenario about.
so we could focus some periods - we can have the old west, the american revolution times and the cream - the civil war.

p.s
i feel this will be the first mod i will have the will to sit and play (never played my mods ..)

 

[keldath]

look - i knew i remembered something...:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=265168

its wonderful,
its a beta mod, needs lots of heavy lifting, but most of the work is done for us,
now i need to take the good stuff from this mod and bring over to there.


***
ok lotz of work to be done in this beta mod.
clean up of the revdcm that has so much errors.
but i think we are passed the hard work there.
i think the idea of a scenario that starts with micro mange tons of city maybe less fun but when u only manage a part in the entire war is better - the confederacy is split to say like 5 regions, and the union to 5 more locked onto an alince and triggered to be at war using the python mods .. ohh wee we can have a working version very soon.

 

[Radio Noer]

I can see if I can help with some of the historical aspects, since I don't know what your knowledge base is. I think that the Civil War may be a bit too narrow. It'd be cool if we could get pre-colonial through modern day in the same mod, or in a series of scenarios.

Don't forget, this mod has a lot of 2D art assets that can be recycled, and some unpublished civilopedia entries for leaders, if they are still used.

I'd like to be somewhat involved with your iteration, keldath. Just tell me what you want to know, what research needs to be done, etc.

EDIT: Also, you guys are talking about breaking civs into regions, which is what I've done already, just not on a map, so you don't have to do that yourselves, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

 

[Drakarska]

Nope, no misunderstanding. I'm pretty sure Keldath and I were talking about map placements for Civs. Lol, at least I was.

Let's see;

XML= nope. I do custome scenarios for my boys, so it's pretty much notepad ++, and map editors.

Civil war- Narrow? yes. Custom scenario? yes. = Win Win IMO.

History; My minor was NA studies for my SOC degree. Granted, I'm way rusty, but I think I still have all my research materials.

Techs; I recommend using BTS vanilla base, toss in American specific, add a dash of euro techs for a "true" american hodge podge

K-Mod; Epic idea. That would give the minor NA tribes serious juju vs Civs, ntm the AI's as well.

Maps; Recommend a varied set here, with the smallest being set at standard ( regional conflict and areas for civil war battles). Additionally, you'll need to figure out game speed setting to base this on, then mod accordingly. Thoughts?

Scenarios; This would be a scenario creators dream goal, as there is so much info available. I could probably come up with a few once we get the basic parameters established.

@ RN; By all means, definitely would want your input, especially considering it's your mod . Chime in on any thoughts and we'll see what happens.

 

[Radio Noer]

I think we have to get just about every major American war in a scenario form at some point, but that'd be quite a bit of work (yet soooo fun at the end) Even some minor things like the Philippine Insurrection could be good. I feel like there should also be the option to just free-play, starting with a civ and going from there, in America or on a randomly generated map, so making sure that is fully functional and somewhat balanced would be good.

 

[Drakarska]

Agreed. I was thing Huge + random. Civ specific starts as well. Hmnn, I think we could also do a NA/SA (continent map), that way Monty and Cupac could play as well. Also, if memory serves, Colonization's assets are portable, thus making SA natives a option... Oh yeah, forgot about Pacal, add him too.

 

[Radio Noer]

I suppose that fits with the NA theme, but seems too early, Jamestown was founded in like 1601 or something, right? Long after those civs collapsed, though it could be interesting to have some NA scenarios.

 

[Drakarska]

Civs itself, yes. Descendants were still around, can use as natives, or even a colony. possibilities are endless.

Early Colony scenario is possible with those civs still active, not to mention the entire Caribbean as well. besides, I think I still have a couple of "what if" scenario's for vanilla that I created for vanilla. Should be fairly easy to port over for BTS and then update.... I hope, lol.

 

[keldath]

hey guys,

i like where this is headed.

radia you got me right, i saw your region in the civs, but currect not on the map, i intentd to use it on the map, i think scenarios that give u a huge empire to run from game start are a little hard and less fun, so starting small is better i believe.

i completely into making a pre civil was era so we can use this mod with several era secnarios. its epic.

any help from you guys are great,
ill do this for start, first ill create the structure with kmod, and clean tht old mod from all of the buggi things, ill build a tech tree, upload the pack here, then we can decide how to proceed

gluvk , im off to work.

 

[Drakarska]

Kel, I'm thinking we may want to use Epic as the speed of choice here, especially if we don't want sprawling empires early game. Additionally, if your thinking early colonial start for the main scenario, your going to have to have a few Euro colonies in the appropriate spots as well.
A huge+ map will give you the eastern seaboard, as well as the Caribbean colonies. This would probably be a good starting point for those regional civs to kick out the euro-trash

 

[keldath]

hehe euro trash

yes we could do that.

speeds - well, we can define a speed - but what if some1 wanna plat more then epic? i like keeping the options open we can optimize the mod for epic, but leave the other speeds for other scenarions and custom game.

well good news, im successfully merged the mod with kmod.
i have do to some sdk fixes from the original build, a noit more polish, add platpings ui,
and start doing the tech tree.

i sure can use some ideas for early techs , and later ones.

also feel free to start a scenario map (just the map it self - civs and city placement should take place after we decided on our civ list.) - later i can efit the map to work with the mod, its really easy.

im gonna work hard every day on this, so on the week end , we might just have a playable beta. most of the material is already made in this mod and amercian civil war mod.

 

[Drakarska]

It will be a few for me before I can start with the scenarios. My work sched just got changed, so I'm going to have try to do basic outline 1st before I can set anything into the mod. RL suxs sometimes

 

[keldath]

still debugging the xml.. its a hard ass work

 

[Drakarska]

Lol, one of the reason's I don't deal with it.

Ok, so for the time ( and foreseeable future) being, My work schedule has been changed to an "on call/ 12hrs" shift scenario until further notice. I'll try to get some basic parameters laid out and some stuff set to maps. Ok to post my work (lol, when I can) in this thread so you guys can take a look and give your input?

 

[keldath]

hey,
cool no rush man, do what you can when you can.

for now i thin kwe stay on radios thread, since its his work we gonna use, and colaberate withhim i hope.

***
i hope i got all the sdk/xml errors, ive ran an auto ai pay of 200 turns and did not get any error,
i will run more games today - aorund 1000 turns, after im satisfied ill beging more polishing and owrking on the tech tree.

***
i guess you can help more - maybe lay down a structure for a unit tree:
i thought about types of horse riders, and sorts of rifle mans, cannons, gatlings:
a structure that will include a deffending units, an attaking, siege unit, support unit, rivel territory units.
i was thinking 3-4 tier for each on the tech tree - starting with a pre civil war tree so we can base off other scenarions on it.

 

[Drakarska]

Ok, just so I'm clear. We're wanting the 1st scenario to be entirely American mod and your wanting everything in it to be for the primary map?

 

[keldath]

mm not sure i understood what you ask,

the first scenario should be regular civil war - times of 1859-1865 i think.

 

[keldath]

ok,

im building the tech tree now,
i ned some names for techs, this will be the structure:
4 era techs:
Good Feelings ( maybe?)
1.Great Awakening
2.Abolitionism - start of the civil war (we can choose when to set the war script either by events or the _j script)
3.Manifest Destiny
4.Progressive

now i need some names, other wise, ill pull some from the web and the 2 mods here

my tech tree wont be so short, i want the player to be able to study all sorts of lanes of techs.


***
i really want a colonial american revolution scenario, i have some ideas how to merge the two distinct times together in the same mod .

ideas and names people!